Mercedes has responded to speculation that Lewis Hamilton gave away his trophy for finishing third in the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship at the FIA’s prizegiving ceremony.
The FIA and Mercedes have come to blows recently following the world motorsport governing body launching an investigation into Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff and F1 Academy Managing Director Susie Wolff regarding supposed complaints of a conflict of interest.
However, the investigation was subsequently dropped after backlash from F1 and Mercedes, alongside the team’s rivals, who denied instigating the FIA’s action.
Hamilton was critical of the FIA’s handling of that situation and at the prizegiving ceremony also called into question the governing body’s commitment to sustainability by hosting the awards in Baku rather than its native city of Paris.
After the Mercedes driver left his third-place trophy at the ceremony, some believed this was a sign of protest against the FIA and one fan even took to X (formerly Twitter) to claim that Hamilton had gifted them the prize.
Mercedes has sought to clarify the truth of the situation.
“Immediately after leaving the stage, and as has been done at previous prizegivings, Lewis accepted the offer from officials for the trophy to be sent on to the team and therefore left it in their care,” began a statement from the Brackley-based outfit.
“We can confirm he did not give the trophy to anyone ‘as a gift’ as has been speculated.”
Hamilton’s third-place prize is a reward for the Briton’s efforts in the 2023 F1 campaign, which saw the seven-time champion fail to secure a Grand Prix win for the second year in a row, having previously won at least one race in every season of his career prior.
The Mercedes driver was unable to fight against the might of Red Bull’s RB19, with the Mercedes W14 car inheriting the problematic characteristics of its W13 predecessor.
Mercedes introduced a B-spec in Monaco that did away with the uncompetitive ‘zeropod’ philosophy for a more conventional design, but that did little to boost the side’s hopes.
However, Hamilton expressed “full faith” in Mercedes to bring him back into winning contention next season ahead of the German marque pursuing a brand-new car concept.
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